Psalm 108: 1-8 (New Jerusalem Bible)
Luke 13: 10-17 (Common English Bible)
This story is about a disabled woman whose back has been bent for 18 years. Luke writes it was done by an evil spirit, but that is what they believed back then. But in my opinion she probably had scoliosis. To make matters worse for this woman, she was shunned by her own community because of her illness.
In the meantime Jesus was preaching inside a synagogue and he noticed that woman. He came to the woman, placed his hands on her and then her back was straightened. And she praised God for this miracle. Jesus then said, “Woman, you are set free from this illness.”
The crowds around the synagogue applauded Jesus for his miracle. But the synagogue leader was angry. He thought no one should be healed on the Sabbath day. When Jesus heard this he was livid and called the synagogue leaders hypocrites. Jesus told them, “Don’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from its stall and lead them out to get a drink?” After hearing this, the synagogue leaders were too embarrassed to say anything. Jesus won the debate.
The Pharisees and their Sabbath traditions were the issue that most frequently provoked controversy in Jesus’ ministry. What angered Jesus was the Pharisees and their 613 rules from the Torah. It put a higher value on the livestock of the Pharisees than people in distress. When we care more about keeping the rules than we do for the welfare of people made in God’s image, we miss the whole point of our existence. I’m glad there are good people and clergy who are willing to break the bad rules. One example is the brutality of the ICE agents on migrants and those trying to stop the violence against them. In my opinion the ICE agents remind me of Hitler’s Brownshirts.
Jesus knew that rules were important but he also knew the larger purpose of the Sabbath was to free people from whatever holds them in bondage. The Pharisees could not grasp that truth. When Jesus healed the woman, she was not only free from her disability but also free of social shunning.
“The Americans with Disabilities Act” was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. Unfortunately this current administration by executive order wants to rollback more than three decades of progress that helped the disabled.
All of these advances from the past 60 years are now at risk and the impact is already being felt nationwide. Funding cuts for community organizations that provide crucial services and support systems for the disabled will be cut. This includes home modifications for the disabled, job coaching and personal assistance for people who have limited mobility.
Disability service advocates warn that Donald Trump’s anti-diversity executive orders are just a prelude to even more draconian attacks. His plan to cut billions of dollars in grants originally meant for the National Institutes of Health, will have severe effects not only to Americans, but to people worldwide. This will prevent many physicians and scientists from serious research on life-giving medicine and improving health-care. And of course, cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid will have a devastating effect on disabled people.
This current administration’s attack on beneficial government policies and programs that benefit disabled people is not just a plan created in the dark corners of the right-wing “Heritage Foundation Society” with their infamous Project 2025 to send America back to the 19th century, it is also the evolution of Donald Trump’s long-standing prejudice against people with disabilities. His dislike for disabled people is well known. He mocked a disabled person from the stage who was a reporter and his name was Serge Kovlaleski. I saw this on TV. So Donald Trump cannot say it was “fake news” as he always does when the news is bad for him.
Joseph Stramodo, a professor of philosophy and an expert on bioethics and disabilities at the San Diego State University, said Trump’s contempt for people with disabilities appear to be rooted in a binary worldview in which the so called “makers” who build things are to be celebrated, while those who need assistance to live are to be shunned or removed entirely. Think of the woman in Luke’s gospel when her community no doubt shunned her because of an evil spirit within her just like the possessed man in Mark chapter five. Professor Stramondo said people like Donald Trump have a Manichean view of the world which means, “us-verses-them.” The “us” are rich white people and the “them” are the forgotten. Many people like Donald Trump believe in eugenics, the discredited early 20th century pseudo-science. This discredited theory was aimed to improve human genetics, but in practice targeted tens of thousands of the so-called undesirables in America, the poor, the non-white, the mentally ill and those who were disabled. Many were institutionalized and were forced to be sterilized. This is a very sad story of America that will probably be censored by the current administration. But a nation should know all the facts, the good, the bad and the ugly, and work together so that will never happen again.
The entirety of Psalm chapter 103, is about not forgetting and being reminded of the good things God has done. We know God and God’s works and God’s miracles in our life. So in this Psalm it tells us to never forget.
We should note several things about God’s blessings. One is forgiveness and the other is love and compassion. All of God’s blessings begin with forgiveness. That is the heart of the new covenant God has made with God’s sinful people. Often we have not kept our end of the partnership just like the Israelites. God could have broken the covenant that God made with Abraham and his descendants, but chose not to. Instead, God promised a new covenant in which sins will be no more.
The greatest miracle of God, except for the Resurrection, is hard to forget. And that was the liberation of the Hebrew people from Egypt. And God led the Hebrews out of Egypt through the Reed Sea (“Red Sea”) to the foot of Mt. Sinai. Unfortunately the Hebrews committed a terrible sin while Moses was on the mountain, receiving the 10 Commandments. The Hebrews made a golden statue that the Egyptians worshipped, a Golden Calf. God’s wrath against the Hebrews was fierce and God was ready to destroy all of them, except Moses.
But Moses begged God not to kill them and God relented. God promises Moses that he will be with him and his people until they reach the Promised Land. But the journey will be longer and filled with danger.
This God that Moses worshipped is the same God who is angered by injustice. And we are right to oppose unjust laws and practices that make life more difficult for those already suffering. We are right to feel saddened to see diseases of all kinds. And I’m afraid it’s only going to get worse. We have a Quack now over our Health Department who doesn’t like science and his name is Robert Kennedy Jr. Can you imagine if he was in control of our Health Department during the height of the COVID crisis? Instead of one million Americans who died of that disease, it would’ve been around two million.
If God recoils from all this, remember that God is the great Healer working through physicians and scientists to heal all diseases. Trust those physicians and not the Quacks pretending they’re doctors.
Psalm 103 says God works for the oppressed. And God works through activists to accomplish that. Remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr well known words, “The arc of the Universe is long, very long, but it bends toward justice. We can pray for the day when Dr. King’s words will become the reality for us all. Amen
